Author's note:
Sorry this took so long. Honestly, the writing didn't take too long, but life got very busy. Anyways, this is more of a transitions chapter, but I think it sets up some interesting future developments. Hope you enjoy!
*****
1.
There was a rising pang of anxiety rising in Leah's gut as she walked down the hallway towards the boys' wing. Megan walked with her and Leah could sense the girl's own sense of foreboding, streaming into her brain like a staticky radio signal. Things were growing out of control.
"Tell me again how you left them," Leah said.
"They seemed out of it. Pale. Passed out. Not too different from how you described it."
"When I did it, I didn't give birth to some monstrosity. Besides, you're different than me. I can feel it."
"How so?" Megan asked, genuinely puzzled.
"I don't want to get into it right now."
It was going on nine in the evening. The girls left the RA's room once it seemed that both of their newest victims were well under control. Emily already showed telltale signs of transformation, her breasts swelling, her body taking on an unnatural glow of beauty. Even more useful, the mousey redhead now seemed entirely under the thrall of Lindsay, her sire. Both of them were locked in a coital spiral of pleasure like long-time lovers.
Felicia, meanwhile, was nothing more than a crumpled, twitching mass on the tile floor. Whatever the special creature that emerged from Megan's pussy was, it seemed to have complete shutdown the RA's higher faculties.
Leah pushed through the double doors and felt her blood run cold. In front of her was a disordered crown of students and public safety officers. The entire wing was filled with nervous chatter. Both girls picked up their pace, plunging into the throng.
They rounded the corner in time to see an EMT hauling a stretcher out of a dorm room. The body on the stretcher was covered with a white sheet.
Leah froze. Had it not been for the mass control over her nerves the parasite that inhabited her body exhibited, Leah would likely have started shaking in her boots. Behind the first stretcher, another emerged. Another body. Another sheet.
"Leah," Megan whimpered from behind her. "Leah I-"
Leah cut the girl off, her instincts kicking in like lightning.
"Not now," she said in a quick whisper.
Leah whirled around and grabbed Megan by the arm, dragging her back towards the girls' wing.
"We need to go."
They pushed right through the double doors and bolted through the lobby of the dorm.
"Leah, I killed them."
"Just shut the fuck up until we get back to Felicia's room."
Leah caught her breath. Two dead boys. Two dead, human beings, killed by her actions. Not directly, but blood was on her hands. She wanted to feel some pang of guilt. At least horror.
Nothing. Leah felt nothing. Only the urge of self-preservation drove her forward. What the hell was happening to her?
Regardless, there was no time. They needed to regroup. There was also her former roommate to reckon with. The one that got away.
2.
It was the kind of rainy day where the color gray saturated every single thing, leaving an empty and drab world. The fluorescent lamps of the dining hall rained sterile, cold light down on Jessie's head. The small bit of scrambled eggs and cantaloupe on her plate sat uneaten, repulsing the exhausted girl.
Where do I go from here? Jessie wondered to herself.
There was so much to process and yet so little time to do so. Leah had become a monster. A predator, hunting down girls and spreading her affliction. She already had three or four girls now.
An image of Felicia's desperate face flashed through Jessie's name. It was the worst image from the night prior.
You left her, a voice spoke in Jessie's mind. She needed your help and you let her become one of them.
What were they? What had Leah become? Then there was that snake-or worm-that attacked Felicia. It must have been the key to how Leah spread whatever was happening to her.
A rolling burst of collective laughter nearby caused Jessie to jump suddenly.
At one of the larger tables nearby, a large, bespectacled boy with a neck beard was waving his arms and talking loudly to a small group of guys and girls. A rather heavy-set girl with pale blonde hair was letting out a low giggle as she listened.
"The school gives us weapons. LITERAL WEAPONS, and then they give us a broken closet to store them in. Absolutely genius!"
The giggling blonde spoke up.
"Do you think anyone's going to steal any fake swords though, Bryce?"
"I don't know, most people don't know. Besides, the rec building staff and fencing club, most people have no idea."
"Then it's a great idea to shout about it," another girl said, this one with short hair dyed to a reddish-pink shock.
The guy, Bryce, shrugged and the group's conversation moved on to other things. However, Jessie's mind was already starting run on overdrive. Leah was out there and her numbers were growing; what was worse, Jessie seemed to be her number one target. Some protection would help.
Jessie slinked up from her seat and put her plate on the conveyor belt at the back of the cafeteria, most of the food remaining uneaten. Then she started towards the front exit, hoping desperately she would not be seen.
Everywhere, Jessie felt eyes bearing down on her. Anyone could be turned. Any girl at least. Maybe guys too.
She reached the double doors that lead outside, here eyes pointed at the ground when she collided against person.
"Hey watch it," a feminine voice Jessie recognizes said sharply.
Both women stepped back and stared at each other. Jessie recognizes the girl immediately as Casey Mozolla, a blonde, curvy girl on the Hornettes team. Standing at her sides were Nina and Emmy.
Jessie stood petrified, gazing desperately at the girls. If they were turned, what the hell was she supposed to do?
Nina spoke first, a look of concern that seemed sincere enough creeping across her face.
"Hey Jessie, are you okay? You-you look pretty run down."
Jessie eased up slightly.
"I'm fine," she said.
"Did your, um, problem get worked out?" Emmy said.
Jessie remembered the night she had spent on the floor of Nina and Emmy's dorm room. That night had been one of the most confusing and anxious nights for her, only to be bested the day after by a long shot.
"No, I didn't," Jessie said. "Have you seen Leah? Talked to her, been around her?"
Nina and Emmy shook their heads, looking increasingly concerned and confused.
"I saw her," Casey piped up.
She looked annoyed, as if each passing second was one inconvenience too much.
Jessie fixed a hard gaze on the voluptuous blonde girl.
"Where? Were you near her?"
